OSTEOPOROSIS AND WOUND HEALING

By Lawrence Wilson, MD

© December 2007, LD Wilson Consultants, Inc.

Osteoporosis is more common today than ever before. The causes are numerous, including sedentary lifestyles, bone deterioration due to hormonal imbalances, toxic metal poisoning and much more. This article surveys the nutritional literature and suggests how to avoid this painful and possibly lethal condition.

Poor healing of soft tissue injuries such as bone fractures and other similar wounds often have similar causes to osteoporosis. Often the bones are more fragile that one thinks, even in young or middle-aged men. Thus when a bone breaks, or some other injury occurs, the wound does not heal well. Thus everything that is said about osteoporosis in this article can apply as well to the healing of fractures and other soft tissue injuries.

CAUSES OF OSTEOPOROSIS

Trace Mineral Deficiencies. By far the most common cause of osteoporosis is nutritional depletion of the body. This is not discussed in the medical world because nutrition is not a common part of medical education. However, trace element nutrition is most important for bone health. Calcium is mentioned frequently, but the trace elements such as manganese, copper, boron, selenium, zinc and vanadium are also critical bone health. Other trace minerals such as germanium and rubidium may also be involved.

The trace elements are needed to transport calcium to the bones and help it remain in the bones once it has arrived there. Copper, for example, assists calcium to remain in the bones once it is deposited there and copper imbalance is rampant today. Click here for our article on Copper Toxicity Syndrome.

Other trace elements are needed to nourish the matrix in which calcium is deposited in the bones. This is a protein structure. This means it needs elements like calcium, phosphorus, manganese and many others. It also requires a good supply of many vitamins such as vitamins E and K, which are fat-soluble vitamins found mainly in vegetables and some fruits. People who live on refined food diets do not get nearly enough of the bone nutrients. We are surprised their bones last as long as they do without more problems.

Bone Abnormalities. Healing bones is not as easy as one, two, three months and you are healed. Many cases of so-called healing of tiny fractures and other bruises to the bones do not heal correctly. This, in turn, is often due to nutritional imbalances as mentioned above. However, the consequences later in life can be devastating. Often a childhood wound or accident is the original trauma that starts this process.

What occurs is that the person begins to favor the other leg or arm, rather than put more stress on the wounded or unhealed leg or arm. This is done quite unconsciously in most cases. It may show up on x-rays or in a chiropractic or orthopedic office as a curvature of the spine, one leg shorter than the other or a variety of other subtle structural imbalances and no one has any idea where it came from.

The next stage of events is that osteoporosis sets in at a later age, usually, and is quite resistant to treatment, either with drugs or nutrients. This scenario is quite common today. Fortunately, using a near infrared light sauna will eventually correct the problem in most cases. It may take a few years (no misprint there) of sauna use on a daily basis, however, for positive results to occur. The section below on saunas explains why.

Drugs and Osteoporosis. Cortisone is the best known pharmaceutical agent that causes osteoporosis. However, in fact any drug that interferes with nutrients at any step of their incorporation into the body tissues can cause osteoporosis. For example, if one does not absorb food as well due to an anti-acid drug, or other anti-ulcer or anti-gastric reflux drug, this can lead directly to osteoporosis. These drugs inhibit normal acid production in the stomach, or absorb the acid so that it does not irritate the lining of the intestine. However, they also disrupt digestion seriously.

Other drugs include antibiotics, which adversely affect intestinal flora. Others include anti-arrhythmia drugs that slow down the heart and its rhythm. These affect digestion as well, as do most other drugs if they irritate the intestines, such as many pain killers including aspirin, NSAIDS such as ibuprophen and most others.

Other drugs such as birth control pills and patches affect hormone production and are known to deplete zinc and perhaps magnesium and other micronutrients. This discussion could go on and on, but the reader can see that drug use definitely can be linked to osteoporosis for the reasons given here.

Toxic Metals. Toxic metals such as cadmium in particular, but also fluoride, copper, iron, manganese and others may accumulate in the bones. Lead in the bones is also very, very important.

Toxic metals replace vital minerals in the bones, causing them to be more brittle in the case of cadmium, or weaker in the case of lead and fluoride. These metals are deeply incorporated into the structure of the bones, so they will not be revealed on any simple tests such as urine challenge tests with EDTA or blood, hair, stool or other tests.

They may be revealed by instruments such as the Dermatron, Vega or other machines. However, I assume that everyone has some of these so I do not need to bother with the sometimes expensive instrument readings or the other tests for this purpose. I use the hair analysis strictly to figure out how to correct the problem, not for diagnosis of toxic metals.

HAIR ANALYSIS AND OSTEOPOROSIS

Hair mineral analysis can be very useful to help assess some of the many causes of osteoporosis. One of the easiest and most important distinctions has to do with the oxidation rate. One can be a fast, slow, mixed or sub-oxidizer type. There may be more subtle types, but these are less important. Here is a brief idea of how they relate to osteoporosis.

Fast Oxidation. This is a state of excessive adrenal glandular and often excessive thyroid gland activity. It is not common in most adults, but is seen more in children today. This state of body chemistry is indicated on a properly performed hair mineral analysis by low levels of calcium and magnesium, in relation to the levels of sodium and potassium. These individuals lose calcium and magnesium in larger than ideal amounts as part of the fight-or-flight response and due to overactive thyroid glandular activity, which tends to lower calcium in the body. Parathyroid glandular activity tends to increase calcium, in contrast. This is more characteristic of slow oxidation.

Slow Oxidation. This is an opposite condition of low thyroid and higher parathyroid activity. It is also characterized by lower adrenal gland activity, which lowers sodium. As a result, calcium tends to precipitate out of the blood and deposit in the soft tissues.

However, as calcium leaves the blood, more is drawn out of storage from the bones to replace that which was lost from the blood. This process goes on slowly and unnoticed for years. Eventually the bones become demineralized and osteopenia and osteoporosis are the result. This pattern is far more common in adults and less so in children.

Mixed Oxidation. This is a temporary and usually unstable oxidation pattern that usually resolves to fast or slow oxidation. It can have qualities of both types, so the causes of osteoporosis can be mixed in these instances. This pattern is more complex and beyond the scope of this article. Other articles on this website discuss it in more depth.

Sub-Oxidation or Four Low Electrolytes. This pattern is seen on a hair analysis in which the hair is not washed at the lab by a calcium level less than about 40 mg%, a magnesium level less than about 6 mg%, a sodium level less than about 25 mg% and a potassium level less than about 10 mg%. For more information about this pattern, click here. This pattern is also commonly seen with osteoporosis. The reasons are complex, and combine both or many causes discussed above.

Hair analysis is, thus, helpful to assess some causes, but not all, for a case of osteoporosis. Many physicians use hair analysis only to look for calcium in regard to osteoporosis, and this is definitely a mistake. When a reading on a hair test is abnormal, we do not know how long it has been this way. Thus we cannot tell how long a pathology has been in the making.

This is why hair analysis is not used for diagnosis of medical conditions. It is, in fact, a screening test for body chemistry and the body’s response to stress. This is the proper way to use the test. It is also very useful for guiding a corrective program, as it gives information about how to improve the body’s stress response. This, too, is discussed in other articles on this website that discuss nutritional balancing science.

Using hair analysis mainly to look for toxic metals another mistake many well-meaning physicians make. First, it will not reveal many of them on the first test, as most do not accumulate in the hair. Also, I find it unnecessary to find them because most everyone today has excessive toxic metals. We are born with them from our mothers and environmental exposure through the food, air, water and physical contact only make it worse. The hair analysis, in my opinion, is far more useful as a way to guide the removal of the toxic metals.

CORRECTION OF OSTEOPOROSIS

We have already discussed the idea that hair tissue mineral testing is useful in assessing body chemistry and guiding its correction. This science is called nutritional balancing. You can read about it on this website. See the article, The Healing Lifestyle, also. Also, see the article, The Healing Path.

Usually, a total corrective program is needed for osteoporosis, because we are undoing a long-standing or chronic condition. It must include a diet, lifestyle changes, sauna therapy (discussed below), more rest, some exercise and sunshine is very helpful for some people.

It also includes several nutritional supplements depending on the hair analysis results. Also, I use one called microcrystalline hydroxyapatite crystals (MCHC). This is a bone extract that can be most helpful as it contains a number of trace elements needed for the bones.

There may be other components to the program such as deep breathing, detoxification with colon cleansing or enemas using coffee in most cases, and much more in a few cases that are extreme.

SAUNAS, OSTEOPOROSIS AND HEALING OF OLD WOUNDS

Sauna therapy may seem to be an unlikely way to handle osteoporosis and wound healing. However, it can be very effective if the right sauna is used and used enough. The near infrared lamp or light sauna uses three or four infrared heat lamps that are reddish in color. Click here for an article about this sauna and purchasing information as well. This home spa device works well to greatly improve circulation, remove many toxic substances from the body through the sweat, clear chronic infections and much more. An extra lamp down at the legs or feet is helpful for leg fractures or wounds. Turning in the sauna is also very helpful to direct more of the infrared energy toward the area in need of healing.

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